Educate us about working as a Switcher / Yard Dog....

So, what's it like to do this job ? More details the better.

TIA

 

I have "a little" info to pass on about Switcher / Yard dog work.

I replied on another Thread about it...... I'll Copy/Paste that info below....

It's about experience and needing to have a Class A or not.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The person who I know that does this is crappiejunkie, he comes out of the pond every once in a while.

 

Mindless.

Boss man comes up to you and your coffee time which you value greatly for the peace of mind prior to the coming chaos.

Boss man barks at you with a sweep of arm to a row of trailers this, that, yonder and all them too. Get going yer late already, dump that coffee you don't have time for that.

You run a trailer in to the dock, chase down the people who miraculously vanished to load it right quick. Stuff trailer in any old spot. Grab another, repeat the process of rounding up the loading staff. Don't forget the bills to each one in the nose can.

Go home. Do it again tomorrow.

Or my personal favorite. Assigned three docks in one factory building three trailers being loaded. Transfer half a mile down the road to the shipping building and dock. Grab emtpy and run back to factory building. Round and round, 25 trailers in your harem. Factory docks 1 2 and three followed by Shipping building docks 1 through 20. Get going yer late.

Factory and shipping complex is locked up, workforce fired, products transferred to China to be made cheaply and everything is rusting quietly in place these last oh... 8 years or so. What a waste.

 

What x1 sez, incredibly boring. It's about as far away from actual trucking as you can get and without an "Ottawa" yard horse, even worse. One thing for sure, you get good at backing in,,

 

Every job I’ve seen Jockey drivers they looked bored out of their minds. Also some of these yards are really tight and I’d hate having to park and navigate trailers through there.

 

Plus, you can't get away from the boss, one of the biggest perks of real trucking. I've found, yard jockey's don't care about the trailers and few, especially in the rail yards, will give you the time of day.I know there are some yard jockey's here that are cool, but most of them are schmoes, that probably got taken off their cushy job to go and move some trailers and aren't happy about it.

 

I've never done it but I have a close friend that has been jockeying for maybe 10 years now. He says half of his day is spent waiting for JB Hunt and the likes to back in, the other half is spent chasing them out of no parking areas, blocking docks. He's content with it, granted he is at a relatively low volume warehouse compared to some of those monster DC's you guys go to so he has a pretty relaxed day. Not much money in it, but it works for him. I think I'd be bored out of my dang mind though. He's happier than a pig in you know what on days that he gets to do shuttles around the county. that should tell you enough.

 

LMAO !! Priceless ! Thank you!

 

How about if the job pays $19.50 hour to start WITH a $5000 Sign on Bonus ? I'd be glad to be bored with that pay. Plus sleep in my own bed every night.

One of the cross-docks is 400 docks.... 200 on each side. Plus I believe they run shuttles over to the Nissan plant 1/2 mile away.

I start tomorrow 7 AM. Wish me luck !